Little Saigon is a Vietnamese wonderland that spans four towns in northern Orange County. The range of eating options is staggering, and despite dozens of multi-stop trips to the area, there are always new surprises. For example, LA Times contributor C. Thi Nguyen recently “found” Ngu Binh, a 15-year-old central Vietnamese restaurant named for a mountain in Hue. Nguyen spotlighted the cooking of chef-owner Mai Tran, a native of the central Vietnamese town of Thua Thien. Stylish central Vietnamese restaurants like Quan Hy and Quan Hop get more accolades and offer much larger menus, but where there’s overlap, Ngu Binh is preparing even better versions of the same dishes.
When we pulled up to the restaurant, which resides in a double decker strip mall at the corner of Bolsa and Magnolia, a waiting customer was amused to see us, saying, “This isn’t pho. This is the real deal….You must be adventurous.” Condescension aside, it was a fun experience at Ngu Binh, a high volume restaurant that serves high value food and isn’t built for lingering.
The streamlined menu features only 17 options, with plenty of ingredient overlap. Tapioca, steamed rice cakes, pork and shrimp play a prominent role.
Spoon on spicy chile-flecked fish sauce and scrape the rice cakes from the bowls. Scoring a bite of each component was really satisfying, with an array of textures and flavors.
I couldn’t figure out why the pork and shrimp were stained such an unusual color, so I e-mailed local Southeast Asian food expert Robert Danhi, who said the red color comes from annato.
Ngu Binh offered so much flavor and value that it will be fun to return to the restaurant to further explore the menu. Bun bo hue and tapioca dumplings with mung beans are only 45 minutes away, and I will bridge that distance again soon.
Blog Comments
tran hoang diep
March 2, 2016 at 1:14 AM
o nha hang co can nguoi lam ko ? toi da tung phuc vu nhieu nam trong cac quan an , thao vat nhanh nhay that tha va trach nhiem. neu duoc lam thi bao nhieu mot thang?
Thi Nguyen
April 6, 2010 at 5:59 PM
Funny you mention Quan Hy and Quan Hop – I grew up with banh beo, and when I directed those joints for banh beo, I could sort of see why people dug ’em – they were very clean and careful and pretty and all – but they were all missing in the *guts*, the raw sticky slimy gloriousness of it. I think Ngu Binh’s was, like, the twelfth banh beo I tried in Little Saigon (going through one of my obsessive phases) and it struck me like a bolt of lightning. From gullet to colon, all the way through, pure live joy.
Little Saigon is laughably dense. I think I remember the exact day I first stumbled across Ngu Binh – I was on a food wander, parked at that strip mall, stepped out, and realized there were like 15 restaurants *in that one strip mall*. I was like, “What the hell am I supposed to do?” Solution that day was to put my nose in each door and take a long inhale. I actually didn’t even know they had banh beo until I was sitting down.
The condescension is pretty amusing. I get it worse because I my Vietnamese is horribly stained with my American accent, and she actually corrects every word as it comes out of my mouth, and occasionally rolls her eyes and tisk-tisks.
-thi
P.S.: Christian – have you tried Brodard’s bun cha? I might like it more than Ha Noi’s, but I’m not sure.
Joshua Lurie
April 6, 2010 at 6:46 PM
Thi,
Good to hear from you. I probably wouldn’t have eaten at Ngu Binh if it wasn’t for your review. Any other good meals in that strip mall?
There’s clearly more to Ngu Binh’s banh beo than the versions we each ate at Quan Hy and Quan Hop. I used to view the Quans as the height of central Vietnamese food in Little Saigon, and I still respect them, but not quite as much as before.
Christian
April 6, 2010 at 3:06 PM
I’m adding to my SCAA expo weekend dinner hit-list! Have you been to Ha Noi? Might possibly be the best Bun Cha I’ve had since being in Hanoi years ago.
Joshua Lurie
April 6, 2010 at 6:48 PM
Christian,
I have eaten at Ha Noi a couple times, and liked their bun cha pretty well, but Thi’s recommendation for Brodard is a good one. You might like that even better.